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By the way, GOOD JOB!

Now for the dark side of WW collecting:

These WWs are not suitable for casting as they present a hazard when
dropping them into the pot:
Arranged in weight order L to R, L side is 4 oz, R side is 10 oz.
Should you find any of these nasty things PM me for the address of the TLWDC
(Too Large WW Disposal Center).

Up until 13 years ago I poured many boolits. But jobs and life as I knew it changed. My re-entry into the world of melting Wheel Weights was for fishing sinkers. Something was wrong. Thanks to you I now know about the off brand WWs that have been added in the years I was away. I sorted them and my boolits are working well.
THANK YOU

A good idea, for those of you that might wash the clothes you wear while smelting: High phoshate dishwashing detergent is said to take the lead out. You'll have to wash them twice, or two cycles through the washer because the stuff is slimy feeling.

My two cents worth!

In all, the .41 Magnum would be one of my top choices for an all-around handgun if I were allowed to have only one. - Bart Skelton

"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."Henry Ford

Question about stick on wheel weights. I have separated them but I noticed two different types. One is flat and soft and very easy to bend. The other is like little cast bricks. They are painted and appear to be just like the painted COWW in the bucket. Are they all soft lead or just the flat ones?

Besides boolits, I want to make some decoy strap weights for my brother. They need to be pure soft lead so that he can bend them many times without breaking them. If the painted stick ons aren't soft lead then I don't wan them in my decoy mix.

The little bricks are likely steel. I've just started hand sorting a bunch of mine here and have been running across a lot of them. Use pliers or wire cutters to separate the lead from the others. Then use a magnet. That will quickly separate the steel from the zinc ones.

I keep mine separate by type (lead/steel/zinc). Just never know when we might end up having to cast zinc bullets...

Cheers!

_coder

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” - William Pitt

Question about stick on wheel weights. I have separated them but I noticed two different types. One is flat and soft and very easy to bend. The other is like little cast bricks. They are painted and appear to be just like the painted COWW in the bucket. Are they all soft lead or just the flat ones?

Besides boolits, I want to make some decoy strap weights for my brother. They need to be pure soft lead so that he can bend them many times without breaking them. If the painted stick ons aren't soft lead then I don't wan them in my decoy mix.

Thx
Bill

I have seen the little painted weights you're talking about and they are harder than pure lead. I would throw those in with the clip on weights.

What if you manage to get some zinc weights in your melt?

Is that a problem? That may be what caused the thick layer of foamy gray stuff on top of my lead when smelting WWs today. I just scooped it off but I had not seen this before. (I'm VERY new to this and have only smelted twice before and that was with only 10 lbs of lead.) Thanks.

Could be a problem, if there's too much zinc the melt won't pour right, etc.
Search for zinc here, there are multiple threads about contamination & removal.
Sort WWs first, and keep your pot below 700º, I think that's the zinc melting point.
Then the zinc weights will float and you can pick 'em out.
I thought I had 'em all sorted out last batch, still had a few float up.

I cleaned up my first batch of WW about 20 years ago. This site didn't exist then. If the AIMOO site was around then, I didn't know about it. Thankfully there were very few, if any, zinc weights then. I cranked the flame up and had no idea what the temperature was. Luckily the cast iron dutch oven didn't get red hot but I sure did sweat.

Since then I have learned by experience and reading this site. My stash of approx. 2 tons will last as long as I will so I don't anticipate lighting off that propane flame except on the plumbers pot for ladle casting.

An anecdote: My tire shop mechanics told me that this zinc wheelweight issue started in Europe. Apparently the greenies forced the European car manufacturers to develop tire styles/shapes that could be balanced with zinc only weights. Presumeably, substituting our American lead weights would void the European car warranties. Don't know about the Japanese or Korean cars...anybody know for sure? Possibly American cars shipped to Europe have to have zinc weights to pass European import rules...another European trade restriction on American products!

Great job, Junker! I am new to casting and this post will be an invaluable resource. My last attempt to produced WW ingots resulted in my introduction to contamination via zinc. Thank you very much for the time and effort you've put into this post. You've done many of us a big favor!

Great post. I sorted a bunch of WW today. Had several zinc WW. The zinc clips are different from the lead WW. The zinc clips appear to be held on with little rivits and not molded in as are lead WW. For sure they float to the top.

In my experience, the zinc ones look very similar to the lead with the clip being cast into the weight, the steel weights look like the clip is riveted on. But that's just my experience. Did you take a magnet to those weights?

_coder

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” - William Pitt

Very nice Post and I thank you for your hard work. I have a sorting section in my smelting area consisting of a very large cookie sheet that I dump a large amount of WW on. Using side cutters is slow but very effective. If I can't cut into the WW and leave a mark, then it doesn't make it into the pot. Here in Ca. they are coming up with a lot of new WW designs so having this post to add to is really great. Again, Thanks